Somewhere in Tokyo, there is a room. In that room is a black sphere. Periodically, people who should otherwise have died are transferred to the room. There, the sphere gives them special suits and weapons, and sends them out on a mission to kill aliens here on Earth. While these missions take place, the rest of the world is largely oblivious to them. These missions are lethal--few participants survive them. The sphere calls the shots, and it's not the slightest bit nice. Its name... Gantz.

Reaching the end of this manga was the most relieved I was in my manga experience. I am a big fan of sci fi, in manga as well as in novels and movies, and from what I'd read on forums Gantz was one of the most talked about mangas of the genre. So when I finally got around to reading Gantz, I had expectations. Thing is, there are many many things wrong with it. The plot makes no sense, the way it escalates like crazy out of nowhere makes no sense, 99% of the characters make no sense. It's either this guy is super nice and a hero, or this man is a psychopath that rapes aliens. There is no inbetweens in anything. The art (the author can draw, but what he draws is another debate) can fool you into thinking this manga is something more than just another gore shonen with big breasts and rape pretending to be seinen. But it's exactly what it is. There is no depth whatsoever, the overall psychology would be the one imagined by a 13 year old who just hit puberty, and the fanservice is so grotesque you wish you had the author next to you so you could castrate him.

The reason why I'm so virulent about this manga is because it's just entertaining enough that it's hard to drop. And when you reach the end, it feels like a huge waste of your time. And it angers me to no end. If you're looking for a meaningful piece of sci fi, save the precious time it would take to read the 300+ chapters and try something else. Do yourself a favor, do NOT read Gantz.

There are way worse mangas, but Gantz is the most INFURIATING I've ever read, and sometimes it's so absurd you can't help but laugh at yourself for reading it.

So kid's, Stay away from this manga! Otherwise you'll end up writing a dumb*** comment about why this manga is so violent and you hate violence and you love peace and you're a defender of justice and everyone that read this manga is the spawn of Satan and eat human liver for breakfast. N O B O D Y C A R E S.

Its good but it also has its share of weaknesses. I think the story starts out really strong. Its mysterious because no one has a clue what's going on at first, with fatal consequences. It has elements of horror in the beginning because the characters never know the whole situation that they are going to get thrown into, they are powerless against Gantz and its machinations so there's a good feeling of being trapped, and anyone can die. There are alot of bad people in this series, some are supposed to be on the "good guys" side, which sometimes makes it more disturbing than what they are supposed to be fighting. On top of that, one of the main leads starts off as kind of a selfish jerk, who slowly evolves over time. All of this is decent.

Unfortunately, there are weaknesses, some plot holes, and a few things that never get explained as the series moves on. A few times, it felt like the author was stretching for ideas and some of it became filler. The story started out small but has ramped up relatively quickly, arc after arc to mega-scale confrontations. The result is that some of the character development, plot and romance aspects have taken a back seat. This is unfortunate because its become a bit shallow, and lost some of the atmosphere it had in the beginning.

Another criticism that other reviewers have made and I agree with is the artwork. The characters look good and the art style has matured in contrast to early Gantz and certainly since the mangaka's earlier work Hen. However, the backgrounds are sometimes terrible. Its obvious that some are photos that have been run thru some Photoshop-type filter and it doesn't match the artwork well.

I still like Gantz and I am sticking with it, hoping that the writing will turn its focus back on the characters and resolve some of the many issues that have been left hanging.

If you're old enought to understand the depth of the history, this IS one of the best mangas you'll ever find.The characters are not noble, they are not super heroes, they are not correct. They are HUMANS, with all its dirtyness.

The character development, the plot, the art. Everything is real good.

after reading 380 chapters in two and a half days during finals week, i would have to say that Gantz is good. It is really good.But that doesn't mean it's ALL really good. The beginning is a rough start, and hard to connect with as they give you characters, build them, kill them. give you characters, build them, kill them. That gets old fast until our main character Kurono has his change of heart. This is all do to one of my favorite characters ever, Tae.

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

Kurono and Tae's relationship is so incredible, deep, and real, it completely captures the story and makes it the epic read it is today. Kurono's choice of Tae embodies love. That's right, this adult, ecchi, horror, action, tragedy has true unbridled, love, and it's that that makes this a worthwhile read.

it's imperfections are splattered for the most part evenly throughout. In the later chapters (furthering into 300) the chapters get repetitive, and almost a "yeah, yeah, why should i care" aspect to them, but the author seems to get wind of this and as always, moves right along. some strange plot happens that seems extremely superfluous or not properly integrated or explained.

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

Such as Kurono's brother, who when he is introduced, comes out of nowhere and i actually checked the title to see if this was the same manga. From his "introduction" into the story, he becomes a vampire (?) an aspect in and of itself that is never properly explained. He is built like he will be playing a pivotal role and then makes one phone call to our hero, then is killed off screen, and that's all we ever hear of him. no family emotional sect, no funeral, no flashback, nothing. Kurono gets mad and kills them. That's it.

It's problems like this that make Gantz a tire to read, as well as repetitive scenes such as people crying or screaming kurono's name for half a chapter. Where there is also a hugely positive human aspect to the manga (selfish love, war ethics, responsibilities) there is honestly a LOT of very inhuman humans that the author tries to make out as average or the norm. lots of selfishness and senseless killing and violence, but through all that, i personally found the whole of the manga redeemable.read it with the right mindset and i'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it.

When this series started, it was coherent enough, plot moved decently, and had enough twists and turns to make it interesting. For the past 60 chapters though, its just slacked off into a chapter of enemy introduction, round 1, round 2, repeat until enemy dead or morphs into something stronger. This has kept up for so many chapters that the entire comic has pretty much lost its roots in any sort of character development and has pretty much deteriorated into a boob/gore fest. Really wish the author would move the story along at this point, the only reason im still looking at this is because i've read this far, and would like to see some resolution to ... something .. anything.. would be nice really at this point.

Oh, i had rated this a 9 at one point, and its just slowly dropped to here enough that i felt the need to make a comment about its degrade.

So in the first... half... or so of Gantz, the one thing that comes to mind when is "Holy cow, the protagonist is a pervert!" And he is... and not in the comedic played-for-laughs way, either. And could the girl he likes be any more useless? Masaru is really the only decent person in this bit.

However, lots of Character Development happens around, say,chapter 140 or so, and Kurono graduates from being a total butthead to... maybe about 20% butthead. You really begin enjoying the story around this point. Before, it was just an 'okay' manga, with great action and a shallowness rating of 10, but around here, the protagonists kick butt and take names, and it's amazing.

Unfortunately, it later devolves into this really strange alien-invasion story (not like it wasn't one in the first place, so I don't feel like I'm really spoiling anything), and some of the fights are truly interminable. The sheer scale of it makes it hard to tell what's going on. Toward the end of about 300 chapters, you start wishing it would be over already.

To sum it up, in the first 100 chapters, the main characters mostly think with their hormones. In the second, it's a great story. And in the last 100, you start skipping chapters.

So, yeah, very addictive read, excellently drawn by army of sweatshop assistants, more flying limbs than there are pages (impressive when page count is OVER 10K, literally), plenty of random boobage, cool action, good suspense, lotsa of tearjerker moments, and NO PLOT ARMOR. On anyone. (Though they have a habit of coming back inworld months/RL years later)... However, be warned that this thing has NO pre-planned design whatsoever, much less for hundreds of chapters (nor does it gain one for the first ~200, unless you go with character development = the plot... in which case, it's simply about how various random and extreme experiences plus conscious choice interact to turn pairs of similar characters into opposites, creating both heroes and asshats from pretty much identical dough).

Weaknesses: 1. Everybody dies A LITTLE TOO RELIABLY... At least once per person, often moreso.

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

375 chapters in, the ONLY characters to feature in a foreground KNOWN TO NOT have experienced death yet are Kuruno's estranged mom/dad, a journalist, and several random Japanese faces occasionally used to display public opionion, and presumed-not-deads are circa three little boys and maybe the only person to ever like Nishi

2. FANSERVICE (traditional), bit too rampant. We WILL see every female's teats for one reason or another, sometimes dozens of times in thematically unrelated centerfold mode on chapter title pages. Specfic characters spend DOZENS - HUNDREDS of chapters without the benefits of bra and/or panties.3. FANSERVICE (Guro): gore for gore's sake.Ludicrous quantities thereof.... Some of it VEEEEEEERY imaginitive. 4. FANSERVICE (Textures/Shading/3D) OH LOOK, PAHW, I GOTS ME A COMPUTER...and a crowd of sweatshop slaves ("assistants"). Everything gets rendered and textured, with tertiary details far more worked through than secondaries, and secondaries dominating over primaries (which might be missing entirely). Ex: long boss fight leaves you unsure of how it was finished, entirely unsure of who the heck finished it, but REAAAALLY lets you appreciate the detail on that vase on the desk in the corner.5. Identical/confusing/androgynous anime faces on important people (like same face on 5 key chars, including a male lead and two of his romantic interests - only reliably differentiated via context, generally need height hair AND speech too make a 100% id)... but at the same time, REEEEAALLY detailed and well-drawn third-tier characters... with SOME decent recurring characters, seemingly due to them getting promoted from "assistant draw some sorta face here please" chars due to reader popularity (aka one lazy author, one really good'n'thorough lead assistant, and some ludicrously enthusiastic junior assistants - and that's the known truth, since mangaka's lower-profile earlier and later manga have identical faces for everyone/period). 6. Perverts and virgins (exclusively male... one exception). Sometimes, hell often - both. AND THEY'RE EVERYWHERE. 7. Did I mention the no underwear thing? One chick actually SURVIVES AIRBREAKED ORBITAL REENTRY W/0 PANTIES ON. And that's just the habitual fanservice, since otherwise the scene fits.8. DADDY ISSUES... Big ones. Recurring cases of accidental paternity for virgins. Only one case of presumed-ongoing-seemingly-wholesome-2-original-parent-household, and we only find this out when the parents get killed off consecutively (don't think dad ever got drawn or mentioned before). Everyone's got daddy issues.9. Out-of-the-blue killing of arcs or characters... though, more often than not, years later they resurface. That's kinda what makes it addictive.10. Veers off on a huge hundred-chapter tangent, circa chapters 100-200, and almost drops the ball entirely there. That part's my imho, yeah... I'm referring to the school-heavy second hundred. See delinquents? Groan inwardly. Fortunately, occasionally punctuated by a mission, nonetheless. GETS FIXED.

Spoiler (mouse over to view)

Author seems to organize excessive class kills/schoolhouse destructions to apologize for that later, though

Seriously. This manga does NOT give a toss about us. Yes, us meaning the readers. It'll just do what it wants, when it wants and doesn't at all care about how we might feel about it. That's what I love and hate most about this manga. Its topsy turvy chain of events. But hey not everyday that I get to enjoy a story where things get a lot of build up, only to be thrown back at my face and the end result being me wanting more!!

Can I just say that this is one of the best action mangas Ive ever read. This is coming from a person who mostly likes romantic shoujo.yeaaaahh. Can you believe that? I went from reading stuff like Kimi ni Todoke to Gantz. Tells you just how good this manga is.